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Terrence Peter Bosi (Wolverhampton) 1933-2013
By: John Treleven Date: May 22, 2023, 3:55 pm
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Terry Bosi (Codsall) works as a sales representative for a
plywood importer in the Midlands, Married, with a son, he took
up refereeing after injury ended his playing career. Graduated
through the Wolverhampton Amateur and Works Leagues, the
Worcester Combination and West Midland League. Promoted to the
League line in 1967 and the full Referees list in 1971 . On the
line for a European Cup tie, Ajax v Hamburg in 1969 and in 1972
the F.A. Challenge Trophy at Wembley. A keen cricketer, he also
plays bowls, table tennis and swims. During his playing career
he played in the F.A. Amateur Cup and at centre half for Bomber
Command during his National Service.
THE ITALIAN CONNECTION by Sandra Irene Harris (nee Bosi) Terry's
sister
Published 16 February 2009, updated 26 August 2009
siharris1@icloud.com
INTRODUCTION
I was born in Wolverhampton in 1940, the daughter of an English
mother, Kate Portsmouth (born 1907), and an Italian father
(though by then, naturalised British), Bruno Bosi (born 1907).
I have an older brother, Tertence Peter Bosi, born in
Wolverhampton in 1933. Our father was a confectioner who owned
a confectioner’s shop selling sweets, chocolates, homemade
Italian ice cream and cigarettes. His father, Emilio Pietro Bosi
(born 1876) had come to Britain as an economic immigrant towards
the end of the 19th century, when he was just a boy. We knew
nothing of the history, only that he came from Barga in Tuscany
and sold plaster statues door to door, to make a living.
Emilio Pietro obviously prospered here in the U.K. because,
eventually, he became a confectioner, owning his own shops. He
married Irena Motroni from Barga, but we do not know where they
married. They lived in Wolverhampton and raised three sons,
Paris, Italo and my father, Bruno. Paris and Italo were both
born in Wolverhampton, but due to difficult confinements with
the first two children (probably due to the language barrier, as
Irena spoke very little English), she went back to Barga for my
father’s birth. She returned to Wolverhampton with Bruno when
he was only 6 months old. Sadly, he was never to return to his
birthplace, although he did see service with the British Army in
Italy in 1944.
The Bosi family became naturalised as British citizens in
January 1921 and continued to prosper in Wolverhampton in the
pre-war years. My grandfather, Emilio Pietro, became quite the
man about town, mixing in business circles and playing crown
green bowls for the Molineux club as well as for Staffordshire.
In 1936, he won a national medal, whilst playing for
Staffordshire against Yorkshire in the British crown green
bowling national championship. My father, Bruno, left school and
went straight into the business and was eventually set up with
his own shop in Whitmore Reans, a suburb of Wolverhampton.
Bruno married my mother, Kate Portsmouth on 24th April 1930, at
St. Anthony of Padua Church, Wolverhampton. My brother Terry was
born on 28th February 1933 and I was born on 24th February 1940.
At the outbreak of war in 1939, Emilio Pietro’s business was at
its peak when he owned four confectionary shops and three other
properties. However, during the war years the businesses
declined. Emilio Pietro died of a heart attack in December 1951.
In 1940 my parents moved to Oxley in Wolverhampton and opened a
confectionery shop, which my father owned until his retirement
in 1971, apart from his absence on military service during World
War Two. My mother, Kate, and my grandfather Emilio Pietro
managed the business during those years. My father also became a
crown green bowls champion, playing for Wolverhampton and
winning trophies and died of a heart attack whilst playing in
April 1986.
THE SEARCH
Although Terry and I knew little about our Italian roots, we
became intrigued when Aunt Irma Bosi, nee Tazioli, former wife
of Uncle Paris Bosi, who was my father’s eldest brother, sent me
a postcard of the main church in Barga. Irma told us that, as a
child, she had attended our father’s christening there, which
increasingly intrigued us over the years and so, eventually, we
had a starting point from which to research our roots. But
sadly, my father died before we were able to even think about
visiting Italy and researching our family.
My husband, Graham Peter Harris, and I had an opportunity to
spend a holiday in Barga, in the summer of 1991. We searched
the churchyard, and asked around locally, but could not find any
trace of the Bosi name. We did not speak Italian at the time
and this made our search more difficult.
In 2005, Graham and I, together with my brother, Terry and his
wife Mavis, nee Kirkham, went on a holiday ‘Tour of Tuscany’,
which was based at La Pergola Hotel in Barga. Again, we found
no direct Bosi connection, although I had now started to learn
Italian but only had a basic knowledge of the language. The
holiday was a great success and served to whet our appetites for
finding a family link.
We arranged a third visit to Barga in the summer of 2006, when
Graham and I met our eldest daughter, Julie Harris and her
partner, Lance Thompson, in Pisa. We hired a car, drove up to
Barga and spent a whole week exploring the mountain paths and
researching family roots. By now, my grasp of Italian was
improving, so we had the confidence to visit the priest at the
church in Barga and view the christening records. Though
communication was difficult, the priest invited us into his
record room, which held records going back many hundreds of
years. Again, we were disappointed not to find my father’s and
grandfather’s records. Then, our first real breakthrough came
when the priest informed us that there were no Bosi families in
the little hilltop township of Barga. They were to be found just
down the hill in the surrounding villages, which were still
within the boundaries of the administrative area of the Barga
Commune. It seemed that Aunt Irma might have remembered the
wrong church.
However, whilst in Barga, we did trace the former home and the
last resting place of my Aunt Irma’s sister, Anna-Rosa Vernolini
(nee Tazioli), i.e. on my grandmother’s side of the family.
Sadly, Anna-Rosa had passed away in October 2004, so she had
been living in this house during our first two visits to Barga,
but we had failed to find her, because we did not know of any
links to that side of the family.
On the advice of the priest we searched the nearby churchyard at
Loppia, just a mile or so down the hill from Barga where we
found the graves of many Bosi families. Alas, the church was
locked and we could not find its priest. As we had no names of
my ancestors, we photographed the Bosi graves for future
reference.
Back at the hotel, we were relating our story to an American
woman, who was also on a genealogical quest. She was able to
direct us to the township of Coreglia Antelminelli, the next
hilltop town just a few miles down the Serchio Valley which has
a museum “Museo della Figurina di Gesso e del’Emigrazione” which
was dedicated to the economic migrants who left the valley to
make and sell plaster cast statues. We had found the key to
understanding my grandfather’s story.
We visited the museum at Coreglia Antelminelli the next day and
were able to establish the history of the migration around the
turn of the 19th century. In medieval times, the Italian
Peninsular was covered by a patchwork of city states, including
Venice, Florence, Lucca, Rome, and Sienna, etc. Outlying towns,
such as Barga and Coreglia Antelminelli, pledged allegiance to
one or other of these city states, in return for which they were
empowered to raise local taxes in the form of road tolls for
travellers and goods passing through their territory. Such
towns, which would otherwise have depended upon subsistence
farming on marginal land up in the valleys, were financially
supported by these taxes. However when modern Italy was formed
in 1871, the city states were subsumed and their laws and
regulations became defunct. Hence the little towns lost their
tax income overnight and were driven into poverty.
One very special skill that existed in the 19th century, in the
Serchio Valley, was that of making plaster cast statues from
hand carved wooden moulds. This had originated for the purpose
of making religious statues for churches, known as “Figurine”
and “Figurinai”. So, the master craftsmen were sent out, with
teams of very young boys, to make and sell these statues and
return money to the valley. Initially, they walked through Italy
as peddlers, selling from town to town, but soon they were over
the Alps and selling across Europe. Eventually, mostly via the
port of Genoa, they spread out across the world, settling in the
U.K., U.S.A., South America, Australia and even China. The
migration into the U.K. was mainly into Scotland, possibly
because the Transatlantic ships called in at Greenock, en route
for New York. Even now there are still strong cultural links
between Barga and many parts of Scotland, particularly Ayrshire
and Glasgow.
So we had an important clue as to why Emilio Pietro had left
Barga, as a boy, selling statues. Sadly, we now realised the
significance of the two plaster statues of a shepherd and
shepherdess, which had graced our parents’ lounge for many
years, without an explanation by our parents, which had now long
been discarded.
Whilst in Coreglia, we also visited the cemetery, and again
found many Bosi graves, but still no priest to question. Again,
we photographed these graves for future reference, but Lance
observed that one or two of them looked recently tended. He
suggested that we compose a short introductory note in Italian,
and leave a copy on the best-tended graves. That evening armed
with my trusty dictionary, I composed the following note (in
Italian) and inserted copies into three waterproof bags:
"Perhaps I am related to your family?, my name is Sandra Harris
(nee Bosi), English. My father, Bruno Bosi, was born in Barga
27.02.1907. My grandfather, Emilio Pietro Bosi, was born in
Bargl 25.09.1876. His parents were Antonio and Paolina
Bernardini Bosi. It would please me if you would write to Mrs.
Sandra Harris, (contact details supplied). It would be nice to
hear from you. Excuse my Italian.
With no great expectation of success, we left two of these notes
on graves in Loppia and one in Coreglia Antelminelli, but went
home happy to have discovered the story of the emigration.
SUCCESS
Shortly after our return home, we received a letter from a woman
in Lucca saying that she had found our note, but didn’t believe
that we were related as all her relatives had now died. I
replied and thanked her anyway, pleased to have received a
response.
Meanwhile, our interest in genealogy had led Graham to create
the Harris family tree, which was published on a website This
generated an e-mail contact from Duncan Ward, a long lost nephew
of Graham’s, who was also researching family roots. Duncan was
able to provide us with a lot of information on Graham’s side of
the family, but he had also made contact with the Vernolini
family in Dunfermline, to whom I was related via the Motroni’s
(on my grandmother’s side of our family).
My father had always told us that he had a cousin named Umberto
Vernolini in Dunfermline, with whom he had lost touch. On one
occasion more than 40 years ago, whilst touring Scotland by car
with my Mum and Dad, we had detoured into Dunfermline to try to
find them, without success. Now we made contact via e-mail,
using the data provided by Duncan, with Umberto’s two sons
Umberto ("Bert") and Frank and their wives, Isobel and Evelyn.
Family details and photos were exchanged and agreement reached
to meet, when an opportunity arose.
In July 2007, we went to Fife with my brother Terry and his wife
Mavis, for a birthday party at the home of Julie and Lance.
Afterwards, on our way home, we set up a rendezvous with Terry,
Mavis, Julie and Lance and met the Vernolini's at North
Queensferry, by the Forth bridge. We had a very pleasant lunch
and exchanged more photos and data. This was our first major
step in the search for surviving relatives from the Italian side
of my family.
Several months later, we received a telephone call from
Francesca, in Italian, but it was too much for me to follow. A
couple of days later, she called again, but this time using the
translation services of a young neighbour Roberta, who was
fluent in English. It transpired that Francesca’s grandfather,
Giovanni Bosi, was the brother of my grandfather, Emilio Pietro
Bosi, so we were second cousins. She had found our note on her
parents grave, Giovanni and his wife Eletta Chiappa, which was
also the grave of her father, Adelsone Bosi. Therefore, the
note that we left on this grave had finally located our
relatives in the Serchio Valley.
We exchanged letters and family information and photos with
Francesca and it transpired that Giovanni and Eletta had 9
children, all of whom had survived, so the potential for living
relatives was huge. We drew up the tree of our long lost
relatives, but there were still huge gaps. After exchanging
several letters with Francesca, we planned a further trip to
Barga in 2008, so that we could meet up and and so had Sunday
lunch together on 22nd June 2008.
My brother Terry and his wife Mavis could not travel with us on
this trip, as Mavis was recovering from major heart surgery.
Graham and I met Julie and Lance in Pisa, hired a car and drove
up the Serchio Valley to stay at La Pergola Hotel for another
week. However, we had no idea at this point that we were about
to experience a huge family reunion.
THE REUNION
On arrival at La Pergola Hotel on the evening of 18th June, an
elderly Italian couple were waiting in reception and introduced
themselves as Bosi’s. It transpired that they were Francesca’s
brother Antonio and his wife Emilia, nee Borgia. They lived in
the village of Silano, at the very top of the valley, and as
they could not make it to lunch on Sunday, had come down to meet
us and invite us back to their home for a meal. We set up a
table outside under the grapevines and spent a happy couple of
hours exchanging family information, but even with help from the
hotel staff, this stretched my limited language skills to their
limits. However, Graham and Antonio seemed able to converse
using mime and sign language and we all had a lot of fun. We
finally agreed to visit Antonio and Emilia at their home for
lunch on Monday. Emilia promised to cook us some wild boar, so
we had something new to look forward to.
On the Friday morning, Roberta, the English translator, phoned
me to ask if Francesca and her family could come to see us at
our hotel on the Saturday afternoon. Again, we set up a drinks
table outside under the grapevines and at 4p.m., Francesca
arrived with her husband Mario Venturi, their daughter Daniela
and her daughter, Davina. They also brought their friend and
neighbour, Roberta Sheldon, the translator.
We were all immediately struck by the similarity of facial
looks, expressions and mannerisms of Francesca’s daughter
Daniela Venturi, with those of my own younger daughter Mandy
Thomas (nee Harris). We were also surprised to learn that
Francesca’s grandfather, Giovanni had come to England with his
brother Emilio Pietro (my grandfather), but Giovanni had
returned to the valley soon after. They also told us that the
family home at the turn of the 19th century had been in the
hamlet of Pedona, midway between Barga and Coreglia
Antelminelli. We enjoyed a very pleasant couple of hours
swapping information.
Mario bought a bottle of bubbly with which we toasted the Bosi
family and then invited us to join them back in Coreglia
Antelminelli for a pizza supper at a nearby restaurant. We
visited their old family house in Coreglia Antelminelli, which
they maintain as a holiday home, as they now live on the
northern side of the mountains in Reggio Emilia. Here we met
Daniela’s partner, Guido. Above the doorway were the remains of
a small coat of arms, which they told was that of their family.
We then walked to the restaurant and enjoyed a lovely evening,
with Mario introducing us to various Italian delicacies, whilst
trying to watch a European Cup match on television out of the
corner of his eye. They walked us back to the car park and
showed us the rendezvous point for our lunch appointment at noon
the next day. As we left, Mario hinted that Sunday lunch
promised to be a rather large party and this was the first
inkling that we had regarding a bigger family reunion.
On Sunday morning, we set off early for our lunch appointment
and visited the hamlet of Pedona en route. We found a sleepy
little village, again with a locked church and no priest to
question. The only couple that we could find knew of no Bosi
resident there. This task to find Emilio Pietro’s house will
have to wait until another visit. Having motored back up to
Coreglia Antelminelli we parked and went to the rendezvous point
a little ahead of time. There was one man sitting there, who
looked a little like my grandfather, with his high forehead and
bushy moustache, so I immediately engaged him in conversation,
but it transpired that he was not related, but we enjoyed trying
to converse.
Mario and Francesca arrived with the Venturi family together
with a crowd of other people and a series of introductions began
with hugs and kisses being freely given. Francesca’s eldest
brother Gianfrancoi appeared to lead the family and he was
almost speechless with emotion. We met Gianfranco’s children,
Stephano, Emiliana and Barbara. Barbara was with her husband
Andrea who, with a degree in English, was most helpful in
translating the conversations. Francesca’s son Daniele Venturi
was also present. From Pietro Guido’s family we met Elvira
D’Alfonso, nee Bosi, with her daughter Betty D’Alfonso. From
Ottavia Mazzoti’s family, we met Mauro Mazzoti, and her
daughters Alder Togneri, nee Mazzoti and Anna Corradini, nee
Mazzoti. From Ultimato’s family we met Valerio Bosi and his
wife Tizania, nee Gonella, Valerio’s brother Alberto Bosi and
his wife Manuela, nee Biagioni.
What can only be described as a fantastic banquet then began,
and went on for the whole afternoon, with countless courses
being served. Late in the afternoon, we were honoured by the
arrival of the last surviving offspring of Giovanni Bosi and
Eletta Chiappa, when Ottavia arrived. She was a charming old
lady of 94 and seemed genuinely pleased to meet us, with more
hugs and kisses, and to see our photos of her long lost Uncle
Emilio Pietro. Mario Venturi, Francesca’s husband, proposed a
toast to the Bosi family and Graham managed a short speech to
thank all these relatives for coming to meet us, promising to
return again with Terry and Mavis Bosi when this was feasible.
Once again, Roberta Sheldon was there to assist with the
translation.
Before leaving, we tried to get Francesca and Mario to agree to
visit us in England, but she said that she was scared of flying,
so we told them to come by train. Julie and Lance made similar
offers to entertain some of the younger members of the family at
their cottage in Fife, Scotland. We hope that some of this will
happen. Finally, Valerio Bosi asked if he could come and see us
in our hotel in Barga before we went home, as he had some old
family photos to show us. A meeting was set for Tuesday
evening.
We then said our goodbyes and returned to Barga, having
experienced an unforgettable day. I felt like a long lost
daughter returning to the fold, rather than a distant cousin
whom no one had heard of.
THE WILD BOAR EXPERIENCE
On Monday morning, Graham, Julie, Lance and I (plus dictionary)
set off to drive up the valley to meet Antonio Bosi and Emilia
Borgia Bosi, at their home in Silano, with very little idea of
where they actually lived. Our plan was to find the village and
then ask around. The drive up the Serchio Valley was
magnificent, although the one way system in the town of
Castelnuovo was a nightmare, which managed to tie Lance’s Sat
Nav up in knots. We passed a series of picture post- ard
villages, and then as we approached Silano, which is the very
last village before the top of the ridge, we saw Antonio and
Emilia standing at the roadside waiting for us, outside their
house. We were made very welcome and given a conducted tour of
the house, which was like a Swiss chalet. Inside, the living
room was full of trophies, including a couple of wil -boar
heads, at which point we began to realise that hunting was an
important part of Antonio’s life. In fact, he and his friends
had been the regional champion wild boar hunters for the last
two years – not bad at 72 years of age.
We chatted about family; they had five children, Cinzia, Katia,
Ricardo, Alberto and Monia. We were shown their photographs,
together with their five grandchildren. We took copies by
photographing their photos and did the same thing with a print
of the Bosi coat of arms, which was hanging in their hall.
Without the help of translators, all this proved somewhat slow,
but very enjoyable. Emilia then called us to the dining table
and proceeded to serve up yet another generous banquet. Poor
Lance was driving, so he had to concentrate on double helpings
of food!
After lunch Antonio took us a beautiful ride to the top of the
valley, which was about ten minutes drive from their home. Here
the ridge represented the border between the provinces of Lucca
and Reggio Emilia. We returned to the house for coffee and
tried to get Antonio and Emilia to agree to visit us in the U.K.
It was clear that they had no aspiration to travel and that
they were very cosy in their mountain retreat. Besides, as
Antonio said, he could never leave his hunting dogs. They, in
turn, invited us to go back and stay with them, whenever we had
the chance. We motored back to Barga after another fantastic
day.
DOCUMENT SEARCH
On Tuesday 24th June, we visited the Barga "Registry Office"
seeking copies of any Bosi family birth or marriage documents
and hoped that my improving language skills would help us to
succeed. We were pleasantly surprised to find one member of
staff spoke fluent English. They were able to find and copy
Emilio Pietro Bosi’s birth certificate and his brother, Giovanni
Bosi and Eletta Chiappa’s wedding certificate. They had no
access to any earlier records, but suggested that we contact the
priest down at his presbytery adjacent to the new church in
Fornaci di Barga from where he covers the churches of Loppia,
Pedona and Fornaci di Barga. As there was no time left on this
trip to follow up on this important lead, we have to put it on
hold until our next trip,hopefully in 2009.
That evening, we met with Valerio Bosi and his wife Tizania at
our hotel. Valerio came armed with many photo's, from which it
became clear that he was a football fan, who took great pride in
the Italian team. Although they spoke very little English, we
had by now developed the skills required to communicate. Valerio
showed us a photo of himself in a local team, whose strip was
red and white stripes, “like Sunderland”. We then told him that
Lance was from Newcastle, to which he replied “Alan Shearer”.
Valerio’s old photos included one of his father, Ultimato,
wearing Italian military uniform in 1942, plus one of his
grandfather, Giovanni, in uniform during the Italian invasion of
Albania in WWI. He helped us to complete the family tree under
Ultimato’s leg of the family and we exchanged addresses so that
we could send photographs from this visit. It transpired that
they live just a few kilometres below Fornacia de Barga, very
close to the Pedona turn off, so there are still members of the
Bosi family living very near to where we believe Emilio Pietro
began his emigration. We said our goodbyes to the last members
of the family, again asking them to come and visit us in the
U.K. and promising to meet again when Terry and Mavis were ready
to travel.
On Wednesday, the last night of our holiday, the four of us held
a celebratory dinner at our favourite restaurant in the old town
of Barga and hoped to be back there again very soon. On
reflection, Graham, Julie, Lance and I agreed that we could not
have hoped for a more successful visit. It had been an
unforgettable experience, which the four of us had been
privileged to share.
MANY THANKS BOSI FAMILY
Since this last visit, we have been able to keep in touch with
Francesca, Valerio and Stephano by e-mail, and with Antonio and
Emilia by post. We have exchanged photos of the visit and
eagerly await the opportunity to re-visit our long lost
relations.
THE ITALIAN CONNECTION - PART 2
TERRY’S ITALIAN REUNION, JUNE 2009
INTRODUCTION
After our successful visit of 2008, we simply had to return to
the Serchio Valley in the spring of 2009, to introduce my
brother Terry to all of his long lost Bosi relatives. This trip
was made possible because Mavis, Terry’s wife, was now fit to
travel again. Prior to travelling, we had advised our cousins,
Valerio Bosi, Stefano Bosi, Antonio Bosi and Francesca Venturi
of our trip, and we were all looking forward to meeting the new
family members again. Firstly, we planned our trip to give us 4
days in Levanto, in Liguria, on the Italian Riviera, followed by
7 days in Barga. We flew from Luton to Pisa, thereafter using a
hire car in Italy.
FIVE LANDS – 30th May
Whilst staying in Levanto, we made trips by train to three of
the famous “Cinque Terra” towns, namely Vernazza, Monterosso and
Manarola (the other two were Corniglia and Riomaggiore) all of
which were delightful. We also made a trip by car to
Portovenere, which must be the most beautiful resort in the
Mediterranean. Then, after four days of rest and relaxation,
with lots of sun, good food and wine, we set off for another
Barga adventure with our batteries fully recharged.
RETURN TO BARGA – 4th June
On the Thursday, we left Levanto, heading for Barga, but did a
detour via Aulla, and Fivizzano to find the Castle at Verrucola,
which, according to the internet, was occupied by the Bosi’s
from around 11th to 13th centuries. For such an ancient
building, we expected to find the usual pile of bricks. However,
Terry and I were quite overwhelmed to find a superb building in
such an excellent state of repair with our family name attached
to it. Unfortunately we could not get into the castle, as it was
only open on Friday afternoons, by appointment, and this was
Thursday. After much posturing by the "Count and Countess of
Bosi" we tried to get into the nearby Villa La Pescigola, which
is famous for its gardens and was also a former Bosi residence
c1100. However it was not yet open for the summer, and a large
guard dog soon saw us off. Perhaps another time?
Due to bad weather in the mountains, we decided to go back down
to the autostrada to drive the long way round to Barga. On our
way up the Serchio Valley, we stopped at Pedona, which is the
hamlet were we believe that our grandfather, Emilio Pietro Bosi,
and his brother, Giovanni – Francesca’s grandfather, had lived
as boys. Then further on, on our way up the mountain road, we
stopped off at Loppia Cemetery, to show Terry and Mavis, the
first Bosi graves that we had found in 2007. Finally, we arrived
in Barga and were made very welcome again by the staff at La
Pergola Hotel, where we dined at their refurbished and much
improved restaurant. On Friday we spent leisurely around Barga
and Mavis surprised us all by walking very confidently up and
down the hilly streets in the beautiful mediaeval town. Before
we left the hotel, we received a telephone call from Roberta
Sheldon, confirming that Francesca and Mario, who now live in
Reggio-Emilia, would join us for Sunday lunch, but
unfortunately, Daniela was unable to travel because she had
chicken pox. Later in the afternoon, at our hotel who should
arrive to see us but Valerio & Tiziano. Introductions were made
and I was kept busy with my dictionary. Valerio and Tiziana then
invited us to join them for dinner at their home in Ghivizzano,
on Wednesday evening. This was ideal, as it would be our last
night in Italy. We went into dinner at La Pergola Restaurant
when, halfway through our meal, Antonio (Francesca’s middle
brother) arrived. He invited us to join Emilia and himself lunch
at their home in Silano, an hour’s drive up the mountain, on
Monday. What a wonderful, enjoyable, hectic evening we had – my
dictionary was working overtime.
LIVORNO REUNION – 6th June
On Saturday – 6th June, we travelled by car to Livorno, for our
pre-arranged lunch date with Gianfranco Bosi’s family (son
Stefano, daughter Emiliana, and daughter Barbara and her husband
Andreas). Graham was delighted with our trusty Sat Nav that took
us right across the city, to within ten yards of our
destination, which was at Barbara and Andreas’s flat in Via
Danesi. Gianfranco and the rest of the family joined us, and
after a warm welcome and exclamations of how alike Gianfranco
and Terry were, we went by car to the sea front and strolled
along the beautiful promenade. After our walk, we went by car
along the sea front to the southern edge of the town, where we
lunched in the famous Ristorante Sassoscrito sea food
restaurant, which was situated on the cliff tops and has with
fantastic sea views. We enjoyed an excellent meal and much
conversation - in English this time, thanks to an excellent
translation service from Andreas. Finally, to complete our visit
to Livorno, the Bosi family took us up the mountain behind the
city, to visit the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Montenero, where
Barbara and Andreas had been married. The church was hung with
mementos of countless miracles, which had been attributed to the
Madonna, the patron saint of Tuscany. Gianfranco and the family
said that we would be very welcome to visit them anytime we came
back to Tuscany. We returned to Barga in a thunderstorm and,
after such a wonderful meal could only manage one large pizza to
share between the four of us in the restaurant.
BARGA REUNION – 7th June
On Sunday, we entertained Francesca (nee Bosi) & Mario Venturi
and granddaughter Davina to lunch at our hotel. Roberta Sheldon
(and her daughter Martina) joined us to assist with the
translating. They were all delighted to see us again and so
pleased to meet Terry and Mavis. After introductions we enjoyed
a lovely five course meal. This was finished off with a couple
of bottles of Asti Spumante, but Mario was red carded by Terry
for shooting a cork across the restaurant. After lunch,
Francesco asked if we would like to take a short trip down
towards Loppia to meet another cousin, Anna. She is the
daughter of Lina Bosi and lives in a huge house with spectacular
mountain views. She has two sons, but they live and work away
as mountain guides and only visit her occasionally. Anna was an
amazingly sprightly 83 year old, who made us very welcome. Mario
then invited us back to their holiday home in Coreglia
Antelminelli and then onto a nearby Pizzeria for supper. Terry
and Mavis enjoyed seeing the old house, which had belonged to
Francesca’s mother, and still bore the coat of arms of the
Antognelli family. We then followed Mario up a winding mountain
road until it petered out almost at the top of the ridge, where
we found La Pizzeria at about the same altitude as Mount
Snowdon. We decided not to return to Barga via the unsurfaced
road which contoured the ridge, choosing instead to go the long
way round by dropping down into the Serchio valley and climbing
back up via the main roads. Our Fiat limo was definitely not
built for mountain roads.
SILANO REUNION – 8th June
On Monday we set off in the car to the town of Castelnuovo (or
Newcastle as we call it), en route to Silano to our lunch
appointment with Antonio and Emilia. On our arrival, Antonio
and Emilia were out on the road to greet us before we could even
get out of the car. Emilia then treated us to one of her
spectacular lunches. Emilia was disappointed that Lance was not
with us, as she needs someone to mother. We began to discuss the
Bosi family tree and photographs were compared all round.
Although Antonio and Emilia did not speak English, between
Antonio’s excellent hand gestures, Sandra’s Italian, Emilia’s
clear, slow Italian, a good dictionary and the digital
translator, we all managed. At last, it was time to leave. We
drove up to the top of the ridge, which forms the provincial
border between Reggio Emilia and Lucca and said our goodbyes in
stunning mountain scenery.
CHURCHYARD & MUSEUM – 9th June
On Tuesday, we went back up to the village of Coreglia
Antelminelli and stopped off at the cemetery there to visit the
grave of Francesca’s grandparents and father (Giovanni & Eletta
Bosi and Adelsone Bosi). This was where I had left the letter
in 2007, which led to us finally locating the family. We found
at least another twenty Bosi graves here, so it was very
fortunate indeed that I had chosen the correct one on which to
leave the message. I decided it was fate.
The Figurine Museum was our next port of call, where the
surprising extent of the emigration from the Serchio Valley
could be seen. The Museum had been extended since our first
visit and now included a workshop, showing how the alabaster
figures were made in various types of moulds. Much to my
surprise there was a shepherd and a shepherdess, just like the
two figures my parents had always had beside the fireplace in
our family home. Unfortunately, I had never been told of their
significance within the family as my father did not know much
about his family history, and so the figures were discarded when
the family house was sold. Then, in the church of San Michele
Arcangelo, we were very surprised to notice that a fairly new
looking statue of a Franciscan Monk was dedicated to an Alberto
Bosi, but for the present, we cannot tie him in to the family
tree. Another puzzle to be solved.
GHIVIZZANO REUNION – 10th June
On the Wednesday morning, we drove up the somewhat precarious
road to Sommacolonia, the village that overlooks Barga. We had
walked to this village from Barga with Julie and Lance, one hot
day last year, and the views of the Serchio Valley from the
terrace there were spectacular. Mavis and I enjoyed the view
while Terry and Graham climbed up to see the remains of the
German gun emplacement above the church. It looked to be
virtually impregnable and reminded us that the battle to
liberate Italy was a very hard one. We looked around the church,
which was beautifully kept and quite big for such a small
village. There were no cafes or shops. Then, back to Barga and
off for our last meeting with the family, the "Grand Finale
Dinner" at Valerio & Tiziana’s house down in Ghivizzano. It was
a delightful surprise to find that Valerio had invited his
brothers and their families (Alberto & Manuela Bosi, together
with Nedo & Alessandra Bosi and their sons Alessandro and
Alessio) to join us for dinner. This made the translation task
very much easier, as both of the boys spoke English. We settled
down to another fantastic meal, After dinner, family photographs
were viewed, including several from Terry’s career as a referee,
and lots of Valerio’s long distance running events, especially
the London marathons 2007 and 2008. Graham presented Valerio
with a Wolves shirt, to commemorate their promotion to the
Premiership, whilst Terry nipped out to change into his
Referee’s shirt. On his return he gave Valerio a yellow card,
which he then upgraded to a red for dissent. The boys loved it,
because, apparently, Valerio had something of a reputation for
red cards, during his soccer career. After another memorable
evening, we said our last good byes, and, after being asked to
come back and visit everyone again another year, we returned to
Barga for the last time.
MANY THANKS FAMILY BOSI
So, once again, our Bosi relatives have made us so very welcome
in Tuscany. We sincerely hope that some of them will be able to
come and visit us in the U.K. as we had extended an open
invitation. We eagerly await the opportunity to re-visit them
again. This was a memorable holiday, enjoyed by us all, that’s
me (Sandra), Graham, Mavis and Terry. Lots of love until we
meet you all again.
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